Proposal Calls For Seven Stories, 90 Dwellings
Plans have been submitted by a developer to the Department of Buildings (DOB) to construct a 90-unit apartment building on the site of two former knitting mills in Ridgewood.
According to information on the DOB’s online database, Manhattanbased Essex Capital Partners is proposing a 78,900 square foot, seven-story apartment building at 1626 Madison St.
In addition, DOB records show Essex is planning to create 46 parking spaces.
Just a block away on Myrtle Avenue, a separate developer is transforming the historic Ridgewood Theater into a mixed-use building with up to 40 residential units. The façade of the former moviehouse was given landmark status in 2010, but the interior of the structure is open to development.
As of press time Wednesday, Essex Capital Partners did not return requests for comment.
The Madison Street lot is zoned C4-3A, allowing for commercial and residential uses. The application states that the building will not be “mixed-use,” indicating there may be no commercial space on the ground floor.
According to DOB documents, residences will comprise a little more than 63,000 square feet of the development. That would average to about 700 square feet per unit.
An application filed with the DOB indicates the development will not offer single-room occupancies, meaning the building will not be used as a hotel.
Depending on the type of units created, the project may move forward “as of right” without the need for a zoning variance and the scrutiny of the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Process, according to Community Board 5 District Manager Gary Giordano.
The site includes two one-story structures which were previously the Philru Knitting Mills at 1614-1632 Madison St. As reported in last week’s Times Newsweekly, the location is the subject of an investigation by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) as a possible brownfield.
The address of the proposed seven-story apartment house is in the middle of the knitting mill site. Any contamination found on the former Philru location would need to be remediated-subject to the approval of the DEC-before any new development may take place.
